I am trying to write the methods in a peer-reviewed journal, and I am using the APA writing style. APA says to capitalize the first letter of software programs. However, I am wondering if this is appropriate or if I should write the names of the programs the same way they are written in the paper in which they are described. Two different examples:
1. hifiasm (Cheng et al., 2021) --> should this be hifiasm (original description) or Hifiasm (APA?)
2. AUGUSTUS (Stanke and Waack, 2003) --> should this be AUGUSTUS (original description) or Augustus (APA?)
Hello Richard Flamio Jr.
It sounds funny but I usually do the second type of the examples you used (Hifiasm, Augustus) even though that is not the way they were originally described. In addition, I would use the name of the company and origin in parentheses after the name of the software (rather than names of the people). That seems to be the convention in most journals.
Most journals I have published in want it listed as hifiasm (Cheng et al., 2021), while not directly APA they are generally a slightly modified version. A preferred style should be listed in the journal's guidelines for authors. Alternatively, you could look at several of the journal's most recent publications and see how it's done there.
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